1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an enzymatic reaction process and membrane, and more particularly, to a process for an enzymatic reaction in which a substrate solution is brought into contact with an enzyme membrane, and in particular, an enzyme membrane having an enzyme electrically entrapped therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior art enzymatic reactions are generally carried out by adding an enzyme to a substrate solution, letting them react with each other, deactivating the residual enzyme in the reaction product at the termination of reaction, and thus obtaining a primary product. In such prior processes, the deactivated enzyme constitutes a loss. This is quite uneconomical due to the comparatively high cost of enzymes. In addition, most conventional enzyme reactions are run in batch processes.
However, at least one conventional enzymatic reaction process which is continuous has already been used. This continuous process utilizes an insoluble enzyme (or fixed enzyme) in which the enzyme is chemically bonded to a carrier. The insoluble enzyme does not mix in the reaction product, so that the enzyme efficiency is increased, and the process in continuous. This conventional continuous process has the following defects: the reaction rate of the process is lower than that of an untreated enzyme; the enzyme characteristics are liable to change, and hence a skilled engineer is required in setting up the reaction conditions; they are unsuitable for large scale industrial applications owing to the difficulties in handling the fine granules of enzyme, etc. Moreover, although the physical fixation of the enzyme is readily accomplished, the fixed enzyme releases easily.
Another conventional method of continuous enzymatic reaction has been developed, in which both substrate and enzyme solutions are contained in a dialyzing membrane bag for reaction, and their reaction product is dialyzed into the solution outside the bag. However, since this reaction requires much time to dialyze the reaction product, the overall efficiency of the reaction is low. Furthermore, problems such as clogging of the membrane are apt to occur.